October 4, 1957 - Sputnik
- Thread starter selmaborntidefan
- Start date
To me, looking back, it's a perfect microcosm of the conspiracy-theory mindset and how it can take hold in otherwise normal-seeming people.
People - far more people than you would really think - who really should have known better attributed all sorts of impossible functionality to Sputnik. Sputnik was supposedly, or at least considered possibly, responsible for taking detailed spy photographs of the U.S., videoing various activities, making audio recordings of people's conversations, tapping phone lines, etc., and sending that information back to Moscow.
Things that were physically and/or technologically impossible at the time were all of a sudden believed to be possible, if not occurring, by sane, seemingly intelligent people across the country.
People - far more people than you would really think - who really should have known better attributed all sorts of impossible functionality to Sputnik. Sputnik was supposedly, or at least considered possibly, responsible for taking detailed spy photographs of the U.S., videoing various activities, making audio recordings of people's conversations, tapping phone lines, etc., and sending that information back to Moscow.
Things that were physically and/or technologically impossible at the time were all of a sudden believed to be possible, if not occurring, by sane, seemingly intelligent people across the country.
I dont remember any of that but I do remember hearing concerns that if they could put Sputnik in orbit they could do the same with a bomb. I also remember hearing some say that Russia used info gathered during the IGY (not true) to their benefit to be able to launch it successfully.
I recall Jimmy Carter (before he became Prez) citing Sputnik as a main area of concern for the USA because it showed our vulnerability to the Soviets only 12 years after the end of WWII.
This is what I remember, not the other stuff. Of course Yuri Gagarin being the first man in space was an even bigger embarrassment.
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Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3 of the same year with Leika the dog taking an orbit. Here is an article about the first animals in space:
https://www.space.com/17764-laika-first-animals-in-space.html
I remember seeing (squirrel monkey)
Miss Baker at her home at the Pensacola Naval Air Station when I was a kid. (The museum also housed an alligator that was originally my great-aunt's "pet" named Joe. He showed up at her house in Pensacola when he was little and she started feeding him; he would come to her when called. Got too big so she donated him to the museum. Joe didn't experience space travel...)
https://www.space.com/17764-laika-first-animals-in-space.html
I remember seeing (squirrel monkey)
Miss Baker at her home at the Pensacola Naval Air Station when I was a kid. (The museum also housed an alligator that was originally my great-aunt's "pet" named Joe. He showed up at her house in Pensacola when he was little and she started feeding him; he would come to her when called. Got too big so she donated him to the museum. Joe didn't experience space travel...)
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